TRAMS ClientBase and Back Office systems are industry standards and the yearling TRAMS Marketing Alliance (TMA) can be expected to become a major asset to promotion-minded travel agents. Yet there is another dimension to TRAMS that warrants attention: TRAMS Certified Consultant Program (TCC).
The Certified Consultant Program is a network of independent contractors who support and train agents and agencies on how to use and apply TRAMS products. Some TCC’s are themselves travel agents; others specialize in other business areas, such as accounting, human resources and business development.
The TCC program can be used by any of the 11,000 locations using TRAMS technology and gained new visibility at the recent Sabre/TRAMS Technology and Marketing University in Las Vegas.
Lee Rosen, founder and president of TRAMS, told Travel Agent that the program has grown to 80 TRAMS-certified consultants. The extensive training and testing that TRAMS provides assures travel agent clients of proficiency. The nationwide network of counselors also allows hands on delivery of personalized onsite services.
Like many TCC consultants, Donna Sisson is a successful business professional in her own right. Sisson has ten years experience as a travel agency manager and is a graduate of the University of California-Berkeley Business School. She is also a Certified Public Accountant and has a Masters degree in Education. She now has her own firm: Context Resource Management.
“Our TCC program has attracted some very talented people who have demonstrated their value to their agents clients. They bring TRAMS programs alive for travel agency clients and show the power of integrated TRAMS programs. They pay for themselves by implementing programs that enhance productivity, marketing effectiveness and ultimately profitability,” Rosen said.
Sisson and Rosen see the ability of technologies to empower agencies and to make qualitative improvements in agency performance including client service quality. The trick may be not just in setting up systems but also in implementation of programs, including training, workflow process and integration. One bottom-line result can be substantial increases in repeat business.
Sisson sees the healthy agency as a profitable agency and offers agents a 20-point checklist ranging from the importance of service fees as part of the revenue stream and linking commissions to agent’s productivity. She stresses timely collection of vendor commissions and technology platforms that maximize marketing plans and management controls. The industry, she says, is thin on margins, but big on change.
She describes TRAMS as a “technology accelerator” including TRAMS TMA, ClientBase, Back Office, Credit Card Merchant program and TRAMS Crystal reports. TRAMS offers a soup to nuts approach that strengthens agency managements and decision-making. By using technology and data, agency managers can create benchmarks and “Dashboards” to identify trends, performance and alert managers to problems.
Sisson also sees the advantages of an independent consultant in the ability to bring different perspectives to any agency operations. This ranges from human resource diagnostics to strategic, financial and succession planning. She also urges agencies to build skills vital to agencies of all sizes. One certainty is that TRAMS and TMA members are well served by a highly competent cadre of TCC consultants. Visit www.trams.inc or www.contextresourcemanagement.com.
